After last week’s surprise at my black bear comment I thought maybe I should talk a little about where I live. I’ve mentioned before – Pacific Northwest. Slightly more specific, about an hour outside Seattle without traffic.

I live on a mountain that is 2/3 to maybe 3/4 state park, I’m bad at that spacial estimation thing. What do I mean by mountain, the summit is around 3K on the highest peak. There are a number of homes up here, carved into the hills and valley, embracing the very NON city living.

But there are other inhabitants….

I had been in the state of Washington maybe 3 weeks and in our new home maybe 2, I was still unpacking the last boxes, when my hubs flew back to Cali for the weekend. The kiddo was in bed, I was watching netflix on the TV downstairs when the security lights went on in the driveway outside the room I was in. I look and there is this thing in my driveway. I blink once or twice, is that someone’s dog? The worlds biggest raccoon? God, if I didn’t know better I’d swear that was a bear. It ambled off. Now I’m a rural/city girl. What I know of animals are farm animals and frat boys. So I grab my laptop and google, and what do you know…it was a bear. Huh.

Flash forward a few months, the dog won’t go outside. This is very unusual for him, he always pees at 11 before bed, like clockwork. But he won’t go. I step out onto the deck coaxing him that everything is ok and then I hear this low growl. I look to my right and twelve feet away are gleaming eyes and – no flipping way. I stepped backwards into the house, lock the door, run around shutting all the windows, praising the dog. Grab my laptop and sure enough, a cougar.

Flash forward a few more months. The dog is outside for his morning pee. He doesn’t come back right away. Odd for him. Then I hear him barking like mad. I ask the hubs to check it out, since he has shoes on. He goes out and comes back a few minutes later laughing. Dog treed a bob cat.

Deer are such a routine sight that I don’t even have a funny story for them, except to say my dog is desperate to catch one and can’t quite manage it.

Rabbits less common now that we have a dog because he is able to catch them and they seem to have moved onto someone else’s property. LOL

Keep in mind these aren’t one offs. Someone posted a picture of a cougar walking down the road up here last summer. The summer before that a cougar went into a neighbor’s yard during a BBQ and stole a small dog. I see bear at least once a month in the months when they aren’t hibernating.

Tell me about the place where you live….